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HAIM / RIGHT NOW

So last week we reported on an exclusive teaser by LA trio Haim, as they appeared to be nearing completion on new music. We reported on it and even described what we thought we might get from the new music when it came in relation to what the teaser had shown us. We did expect that a series of other teasers would follow and gradually build towards their first single release in three years. Well we were wrong on all fronts as they weren’t gradual about it as they’ve now released a brand new track called ‘Right Now’ and funnily enough, it appears to have no correlation with the first teaser at all. In fact they couldn’t have thrown us off more.

‘Right Now’ is actual a very minimalistic track with very little going on and a very demo style sound as far as the vocal production goes. In fact the vocals are delivered, almost off beat and it makes for rather uneasy and awkward listening. Aside from the odd vocal delivery the track features piano, heavy, fuzzy guitar strokes and that very recognisable bass playing that we know Haim often provide. It’s taken a few listens to really take positives away from the track, but it does grow better and better with every listen, however as a return track following a three/four year absence I don’t see this as a good point. When they hit the scene in 2012 with Forever it shook the core of the indie rock n roll scene and they immediately inserted themselves at the top of a landscape that was well and truly built already, but with such a large gap between albums I figured they’d come back with a hell of a bang and claim their spot back. This doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Now as I said, it’s a grower, but a come back single shouldn’t be a grower and for existing fans of Haim and long time supporters from the very beginning as Mojo20 have been, it’s actually a bit of a shame and falls slightly flat. With this in mind, the gimmicks for which Haim made themselves famous also come across differently. Este Haim’s facial expressions on bass are actually annoying, especially when she only hits a number of chords in the song, it seems more effort goes into the extreme expressions than the playing itself. Then of course comes the frantic drumming at the end like we saw on tracks like ‘Let Me Go’ from the first album, which we’ve seen before and again just makes you say “Oh. they’re doing that again are they?”.

It’s a crying shame after such anticipation and my hopes are that there’s A LOT more to come from the new record when it’s finally released. It’s been reported that this isn’t a single release but more like another teaser but I don’t buy that stuff. This is more of the YouTube/social media generation basically saying “we can release this and if it’s crap, we’ll be able to play it off as a teaser”. It’s like punching your friend in the face and getting out of it by saying “what, it’s only a joke!”. If you’re going to release new music, then do it, and do it well, because despite waiting and hoping for better from the rest of the album, I’ve switched off a little bit and I’m not endlessly impressed by this latest teaser. I guess I better stay tuned and see what happens next.